Why Mac?

Many of my friends and acquaintances have been asking recently why I moved from PC to Mac.
I explained to the first two who asked, but I didn’t have enough for the rest :-)
I promised everyone else to write an extended note on the blog and discuss it in the comments.



First, a little history. This will largely explain my view of things in the computer world.
I have been familiar with computers since 10 years, my first computer was the ZX Spectrum with cassette programs
and the built-in Basic interpreter . By the end of school, I already had a normal PC , and Windows
for me was nothing new or interesting. Then, in search of a sphere to
study, I decided to dig intounix systems . Therefore, in my first year I already got a practice
at the local Internet site as an assistant administrator. Where he mastered within three years all the main tricks of unix-fu .
Since then, for me, the command line has become indispensable and necessary for comfortable and quick work on the computer.
Over the next few years, I gradually changed the scope of work from the admin to the programmer,
or rather became a web developer. For full-fledged work, I then needed Adobe products -
Photoshop and Illustrator. Therefore, I had to transfer to Windows. But the development itself was still
more convenient for me to conduct using the command line and the terminal editor (vim). At that time I was already knowledgeable aboutMacOSX and about software for this
platform. So my hands itched more and more to try to get my favorite unix with the command line and with a set of graphic programs from Adobe .
And now, after Steve Jobs announced the release of the Mac on the Intel platform , rumors spread about hacked versions of
MacOSX that run on regular PCs . Of course, I didn’t
stand aside and decided to “try my luck” :-) It turned out to be easy to find MacOSX hacked on the network, to find working hardware for it too. So literally
a few weeks after the news, I was already the owner of a self-made hackintosh !
I worked for more than a year on the hackintosh, studying software and the system itself. After that, the course “ On the Mac! “
The rest was a matter of time and money of course.
Now I am writing this post in TextMate on a MacBookPro 15 ” .
And now from lyrics to practice. What is so good and unique in the platform from Apple.
I won’t sing about Macs and will not spit on PC and M $ in particular.
Everything has its own purpose and place. Therefore, first about the tasks.

1. As a web developer, I need server software (for example: php / python / ruby ​​/ apache / mysql ), a
   text editor and a graphical editor. To do the typesetting, in principle, only Windows would be enough for me,
   but it is too inconvenient to work with server programming (who needs items, write in the comments).
   Linux in this case solves the server programming problem well, but it is almost impossible to typeset on it from PSD or AI.
   The Mac has Adobe graphics packages and easy server software installation. So what turns out to be a
   universal soldier for web development is the Mac. I can say that almost the entire arsenal of programs (usually OpenSource )
   for Linux, it works with a bang and on the Mac. It is easy to install and update through the MacPorts package system .
2. I have more hobbies and activities besides work :-). The first of which is music .
   I play the guitar and keys. Composing music. Therefore, the presence of good software for recording
   music is mandatory for me. As well as support for professional audio devices.
   On Windows, this is all there. No less devices work under Mac, and Mac is also provided with high-quality software.
   And its big plus is the availability of free GarageBand , which is enough
   to head for the accumulation of musical material and amateur recordings. The
   usability of the latest version of Logic Studio / Express from Apple is worth special attention .
3. My second hobby is photography . Here, in principle, the products for working with graphics
   in cases with Windows and Mac are almost identical, so I consider the weight of this item to be zero.
   Linux also solves the problems of photo processing, albeit with other software.

So we can conclude that the Mac really wins only on the first point - web development .
Another important point. Which in many cases probably outweighs the bowl towards the Mac platform
for professionals. This is the MacOSX operating system itself and a lot of attention to the convenience (ergonomics) of Apple products.
More details. So, I think any computer programmer (oh, how I “love” this word) ran into a problem
when, after several hours of active work, he began to sink in the abundance of windows and application dialogs.
I will not argue for long, but simply give my example. By lunchtime, I usually already had a critical mass
these “windows and dialogs” and I began to actively close / minimize everything, which led to an additional loss of time
and to slight irritation at the end of the working day ... Many Windows users are simply used to this process.
On Linux, this problem is solved quite effectively. A large selection of window managers plus their great flexibility
allows very efficient manipulation of application windows. The most efficient way is to create virtual desktops . This solution, by the way, also migrated to Windows / Mac.
And now a few “puzomerki”, of course subjective.

• Mac and Linux outperform Windows in managing application windows.
• Linux outperforms Mac and Windows in budget solutions.
• Mac and Linux outperform Windows in system stability.
• Mac and Linux outperform Windows in task processing in multi-processor (multi-core) configurations.
• Windows outperforms Mac and Linux with an abundance of software and specialists.

My findings and tips.

1. I repeat. In the computer world there is no panacea . There are tasks and their solutions.
2. Windows is suitable for almost all tasks. But it is most likely not suitable for lovers of comfort and aesthetics.
3. Linux is a great environment for web programming. It can be successfully used to work with photos.
4. Mac will be of interest to professionals in the field of web, audio / video production, design and photography.

I want to write a little more extensively on the last point. I can judge professionally about the following areas: web development,
audio production and photography. I have less experience in video production and design, but I can judge fairly objectively.
And another area is the work with 3D, which is difficult for me to judge. So, to whom I strongly recommend trying the Mac:

• Web developers
• to designers;
• musicians;
• video editing specialists and specials. effects
• photographers.

I can also add that the Mac is very popular among journalists and scientists. I cannot give exact facts.
If anyone has - write. I’ll say that
I can simply state a fact on the photo and video materials of various journalistic and scientific conferences .
In the article, I intentionally did not provide a list of software products (software) for the Mac platform. Because this is a series of articles
for future issues of appleworms.ru